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pesticide worker protection News

Dozens of farmworkers looked up at the little yellow plane buzzing over the Florida radish field, a mist of pesticide falling from its wings. Farmworkers are supposed to be protected by government rules regulating exposure to toxic farm chemicals. But in this case, the breeze pushed the pesticide over the crew in a neighboring field, where it fell mostly on women, including at least one who was ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched a new Pesticide Worker Protection Dashboard (Dashboard). EPA states this Dashboard is “focused on the universe of agricultural operations regulated and farm workers and pesticide handlers covered by the Worker Protection ...

An employer was fined recently after an inspection showed pesticide application information wasn’t posted at the job site, and an employee applied a pesticide without safety training or personal protective equipment (PPE). The posting, safety training and PPE are all required under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS). “The WPS ...

Owners of farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses that use pesticides in agricultural plant production will have to implement additional safeguards for their pesticide handlers and agricultural workers under a revision to the Worker Protection Standard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the new rules in the Federal Register Nov. 2. Compliance with most of the new rules will be ...

Residents of Melrose, Minnesota were exposed to heavy doses of harmful pesticides after a crop duster released chemicals onto nearby farms, according to the Huffington Post. The citizens of Melrose claim that the pesticides drifted into their homes through air conditioning vents and sickened them. Within minutes of exposure, Bonnie Wirts claims her heart began to race, and she struggled to ...

The Environmental Protection Agency is strengthening safety measures for soil fumigant pesticides. The safety measures will reduce fumigant exposures to bystanders—people who live, work, attend school, or spend time near agricultural fields that are fumigated—and increase overall safety of fumigant use by requiring greater planning and compliance. “With new restrictions, we’re allowing the ...

LA Testing provides environmental and air testing services to ensure indoor and outdoor surroundings are safe for people. Earlier this month California regulators approved the controversial pesticide, methyl iodide, for use on fruits and vegetables across the state. Methyl iodide is replacing methyl bromide, which is a potent neurotoxin and one of a number of chemicals that have been found ...

On November 8, 2011, CropLife America and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Pesticides, Chemical Regulation, and Right-to-Know Committee convened a program entitled "What's New, What's Hot in Pesticide Law and Policy." Rosemarie Kelley, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Civil Enforcement's Waste and ...

Microscopic bugs and mildew can destroy a marijuana operation faster than any police raid. And because the crop has been illegal for so long, neither growers nor scientists have any reliable research to help fight the infestations. As legal marijuana moves from basements and backwoods to warehouses and commercial fields, the mold and spider mites that once ruined only a few plants at a time can ...

On November 8, 2011, CropLife America and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Pesticides, Chemical Regulation, and Right-to-Know Committee convened a program entitled "What's New, What's Hot in Pesticide Law and Policy." Rosemarie Kelley, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Civil Enforcement's Waste and ...

The owner of a horticultural company was fined recently for using a restricted use pesticide (RUP) in ways that were inconsistent with the product label. The product’s use was restricted due to human health concerns, but workers had applied the product without proper training or the required personal protective equipment (PPE). In another recent case, a company was fined because it failed to ...

SEATTLE, Washington, November 20, 2006 (ENS) - Over the next six years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, says it will phase out the use of the pesticide AZM, an organophosphate insecticide that poisons farmworkers and injures their children. The chemical substance is azinphos-methyl, AZM, also known as guthion - a neurotoxic organophosphate insecticide. Exposure to ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded nearly $700,000 to Arkansas and Oklahoma to administer their state’s pesticide regulatory program. The projects will help fund different pesticide programs within the states. The programs include: enforcement, applicator certification, worker protection standards, pesticides in water, endangered species and implementation of the new ...

The Pesticide Policy Coalition, made up of farm groups and industry stakeholders, met this week and agreed upon policy priorities for the year ahead. With the 2014 farm bill finally signed, attention can turn to other legislative and regulatory work. EPA has opened comment periods on both spray drift and worker protection proposed rules. The PPC will comment on both rules, as will the American ...

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced settlements with two associated companies for the improper storage and containment of agricultural pesticides. Fertizona, a large fertilizer and crop protection retailer, and Compton Ag Services operate six facilities in Arizona and California subject to the enforcement actions. They have agreed to pay a total of $133,240 in civil ...

A coalition of farmworker advocates and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Friday, seeking to force a halt to the use of four organophosphate pesticides. Some of these pesticides have been detected in California's rural schoolyards and homes, Sequoia National Park, and Monterey Bay. The four organophosphates at issue in the case are methidathion, ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will issue in the Federal Register on November 2, 2015, the final rule revising the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Worker Protection Standard (WPS). EPA previously announced these revisions on September 28, 2015, and stated that it would issue the final rule in the Federal ...

With sustainable usage likely to be a continued focus following the Brexit result, stringent safety criteria is only likely to increase the pressure on pesticide use in the UK, explains David Chandler from the Crop Centre at the University of Warwick. “We’ve experienced ten years of decline in the number of actives available to the industry, and products are not getting easier to ...